On fighting Condit and possibly earning a title
shot: “First off, I didn’t know I was going to be
switching opponents. My manager and my coaches made that decision
for me, which that’s what I wanted. But with the switch, Carlos
Condit’s just coming off having the interim belt, fighting GSP,
and if I can get a win against him, that should overlook anybody
else in the division. It should make it to where there can’t be
anybody else.”

On taking the fight: “When a big opportunity comes
to fight somebody like Carlos Condit, win or lose, I want to make
sure I’m trying to put myself out there as much as possible and do
the best I can. Because my whole thought process is that I don’t
have to go out there and destroy people. That’s not my thought
process at all whenever I go into a fight. My thought process is
that everybody’s going to be 100-percent hard to fight.”

On making a statement against Condit: “The thing
is, he’s just coming off the GSP loss. That’s still fresh in
everybody’s mind. If I can do something that GSP couldn’t, no
matter what it is, then that should also show I’m ready for the
next step.”

On learning how title shots work and who gets
them: “You start to look at how you have to get that title
shot. What do you have to do? You have to get your name out there.
You have to be doing this, you have to do this, and one thing I’ve
learned is the more high-profile fights you do and the better your
popularity grows, the more people want to see you do a title shot.
Carlos Condit, he’s a great fighter. He’s coming off a title shot,
and if I get a win, that’s going to boost my stock up to get the
title shot and hopefully solidify it.”

On the role of being popular: “One thing I’ve
realized is that winning is a big part of it but also having that
backing. Just having that support behind you where, why did
Nick
Diaz get this fight [against St. Pierre at UFC 158]? It’s not
because his record in the UFC is better than mine. It’s because
people want to see that fight, right? If I understand that, now
I’ve go to say, ‘OK, well, how do I get people wanting to see me
fight GSP?’ Maybe I’ve got to take a chance, fight Carlos Condit?
If I get a win, people are like, ‘Wait a minute, Carlos Condit just
got beat by GSP. He’s fighting Johny Hendricks.’ That’s still fresh
in their mind. If I beat Carlos Condit, however it may be, then
they’re like, ‘Oh, he deserves that.’ That’s one thing I’ve
noticed.”

On Jon Fitch
getting cut: “There’s a couple of things I think. I don’t
know what Jon Fitch and the UFC’s relationship is. That’s one
thing. Have a good relationship with your employer. Second, you’ve
got to go out there and fight your heart out every fight. That’s
probably the best thing I learned because I was shocked. We all
were. I found out about it whenever I was training today and we
were like, ‘Whoa.’ They’re trying to clean up the division and
probably let some new people in. It makes you think, ‘OK, I know
how Jon Fitch fights. I can’t fight that way. Is that what got him
fired?’ You start thinking, ‘What got him fired?’ And you try not
to make the same mistake.”

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